THE ATRILIAN CAMPAIGN

A/ The setting

The Atrilian campaign is the "Southern" part of the Holobar campaign, a PBM fantasy campaign which we've been playing for more than ten years in France and in Italy.
The "Northern" campaign is Mediaeval-Renaissance European flavoured, whereas the "Southern" campaign is Arabian Nights/African flavoured.

B/ The rules

Unlike a standard rpg, players in the Holobar campaign do not necessarily co-operate but take the roles of various leaders in the campaign world, like kings, princes, governors, viziers, emirs, sheikhs, sultans, wizards, priests, shamans, voodoo priests, necromancers, guildmasters, caravan masters, or even monsters.
They may co-operate, fight each other, build open or secret alliances, fund magical research, establish trading posts, wage wars, whatever.

C/ Player characters

PCs are not, of course, the standard fantasy rpg PCs.
Much more than STR, INT, POW, etc. ability scores, what determines the characters are:
* people/country
* kind of leader: temporal/spiritual/business/guild/underworld

The peoples of our campaign are:

1. The Gyptians.
As their name implies, they're obviously drawn from real world ancient Egyptians. Their main gods are Seth and Sobek. Both are evil and lawful gods. The Gyptian Empire is a huge one, occupying most of the Northern portion of the continent Atrilia. Since our campaign is centred on South Eastern Atrilia, however, they are not as powerful here as in the North. They conquered a large portion of the land called Punt and garrisoned it heavily.

2. The Xolas.
The Xolas were the native inhabitants of Punt prior to the Gyptian conquest. They've been driven South and West into the desert and the savannah, becoming fierce nomads. Other Xolas fled on the tiny islands of the Zwazi Sea, becoming fishers.
The nomadic Xolas are broken into several warrying tribes. Each tribe is mounted on a different animal (zebra, antelope, rhino, etc.) which is its totem animal. They hunt the other tribes' animals. Their religion is shamanistic.
The island Xolas worship various lawful gods, Ammon in particular (in our campaign, he is the father of all lawful gods, incl. Seth). Each island is an independent sultanate.
One Xola tribe remained in Punt after the Gyptian conquest: the tribe of the Camel (obviously camel riders). They are despised by the other Xolas, who label them as traitors.

3. The Pheacians.
They are also a Northern people who are trying to conquer lands in the rich South East. They come from the distant land of Pheacia (inspired by real world Phenicia) and are the best sailors under the Sun. Unlike the Gyptians who crossed the continent to reach Punt, the Pheacians circumnavigated Atrilia and reached the Zwazi Sea where their cruelty and greed made them an instant terror. Unlike the Gyptians, again, they did not chase the ancient inhabitants in order to take their land. They prefer to exploit them. Today, the Pheacians hold protectorates on several tiny Xola islands, they occupy the island of Mafia, and they have established two colonies on the island of Serendib. They are currently building a third city on the coast of Dogobar. The Pheacians worship the Moon, Baal Hammon (their name for Ammon), and Baal Hammer (the chthonian god of the Sea).

4. The Meshuesh.
They are the third Northern power involved in the politics of the South East. Like the Pheacians, they arrived by sea. Unlike them, they are not ruthless, which does not mean of course they do not exploit the inhabitants.
Since the Meshuesh have a smaller fleet than the Pheacians, they control only some small islands, and they have only one colony on Serendíb. The Meshuesh have been lately becoming more and more fanatic in their worship of Hammon (their name for Ammon), putting wizards and "heathens" to death.

5. The Bandogo.
The most civilised native people of the South East, the black skinned Bandogo used to rule a huge empire covering all the lands of the campaign. They have suffered many setbacks lately, and lost huge territories: Punt, the Islands, and even the two cities where their civilisation was born (which fell to chaotic hordes). However, the young Ómukama (king) Lalibêa has sworn to restore their power. The land of the Bandogo is called Dogobar. It is the richest and most fertile land of all the South East, yet the Ómukama has trouble raising the funds necessary to recover his lost empire. The Bandogo worship the lawful gods. The state god is Óbodah (their name for Ptah), although he has neither cult nor priest.

6. The Bambole and the Ad'anti.
These two black skinned people live among the Bandogo; yet they have their own languages and their own laws. The Bambole provide diviners and the Ad'anti provide horsemen warriors to the Ómukama. Both peoples worship animal, nature and elemental gods.

7. The "White-Skins".
They are extra-planar aliens summoned by the Kleshites to fight the Bandogo, but they remained on this plane after the war. They occupy a small strip of arid land North West of the Bandogo. Nobody likes 'em.

8. The Kleshites.
They live in the jungles of the Utter South. They have recently taken over two cities of the Bandogo. They worship Djáh the serpent god and Mother Earth. They have the most powerful shamans.

9. The Hippo Men.
This race comes from another world. They were summoned to fight against the White-Skins but failed. They help the armies of the Ómukama.

D/ Playing procedure

ONCE A MONTH, each player states what his or her PC is doing:
     -- etc --

Actually, the sky's the limit. Anybody can do what he or she wants to. The referee only decides what is possible or impossible to do.
We prefer improvisation over rules, hence the vagueness of this summary.
Then he or she receives via email a campaign journal with the most recent news. Of course, due to their location in the campaign, some players might receive more news than others!

MC Gianni
Referee, the Atrilian Campaign
mcgianni@holobar.org